Monday, September 19, 2011

A RAINY MORNING FINDS US GUYS AT McDONALDS AGAIN:))

WE SLIPPED OVER TO DEER PARK LODGE TO CATCH THE SUNSET TONIGHT….KELLY IS IN THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PICTURE

Had ourselves a very rain soaked dull gray gloomy kind of day. The big rain Monster slid across Lake Huron from the American Midwest and began dumping on us about 8 a.m. By 10 o'clock even the furry guys were down in the dumps so I loaded up the gang and we Jeeped ourselves up to McDonald's in Goderich for breakfast. Picked up a few groceries at Food Basics first. Rather than take the drive-thru with two hungry hounds breathing down my neck I decided to go in and pick up our brekky. One sausage McMuffin with egg and one Burrito. We chowed down our snacks in the Jeep, in the parking lot, in the rain. All went well, I never lost any fingers and we were back home by 11:))

WE HAD JUST SHARED A SAUSAGE McMUFFIN AND NOW IT WAS THE BURRITO’S TURN

However, I did have a momentarily embarrassing moment at the McDonald’s counter this morning and luckily I wore a hat and was able to pull it low down over my eyes. Decided to pay for breakfast with the usual pocket full of change I lug around. Hauled out a wad of coins and began counting out some change. Unbeknownst to me something else came out of my pocket and dropped on the counter. I heard the words, “eeouuuww, what is that” from the young girl across the counter from me. A quick glance down told me what it was but not what it may have appeared to be to that McDonald’s staffer. It looked every little bit like something you might find in a kitty litter box. Sensing this, I was quick to stammer out my explanation about dog training classes and how I carry dog kibble in my left pocket for training purposes. She stared at me quizzically for a few seconds then proceeded to get my order ready. I’m sure she thought I was the one in need of training as she wished me one of those, “have a nice day” things…………..on my way out!!

THIS IS THE MOST REQUESTED COTTAGE AT DEER PARK LODGE AND IT IS CALLED THE HUTCH…BEHIND ME IS THE CLIFF TOP OVERLOOKING LAKE HURON

Dropped our unassembled satellite dish off at Lorne's RV first thing this morning because Lorne figured he would be able to assemble that for us. We needed a different post for the new tripod anyway and that was something Lorne said he had. Better to have it assembled correctly rather than me trying to bend and hammer the nuts and bolts into place with a crowbar and a tire iron!!

HERE’S THE GUYS WATCHING FOR MOM TO COME HOME THIS AFTERNOON

Judy from TRAVELS WITH EMMA had a question for me in an email this morning asking, ' is there a reason you use comment moderation on your blog? Having to type in that word verification is a real pain in the pattuti, and I was just curious as to why you require that for people wanting to post a comment on your blog.' Well, I sure don't want to be causing any pattuti damage out there so figured I had better have a look at this. It's probably been a couple years since setting all that up in my Blogger settings and I do remember taking that word verification off once and it was only a couple of days before I began to get spammed. Since Blogger has been making more ongoing changes lately I decided to have a look at all that again this morning. We'll see how it goes. By the way, word verification or comment approval has never been a problem for me and has never prevented me from leaving a comment on someone's blog. If something in someone's post interests me enough to leave a comment, then I will leave a comment....regardless of any minor authorization or verification stuff!! No big deal.

Now, I had better get a little something cleared up here before I come off sounding like Uncle Scrooge. The idea to tip the Ashley girl at Tim Horton's Sunday was a good thought. However, I never did meet Ashley. So, how did I know the name of the girl at the pick-up window? When I talked to the girl at the counter I told her I had been through the drive-thru at about 10:10 that morning. She in turn turned to another girl asking her who was on the window at that time. The girl said, "Ashley" and that is how I knew her name. Wished I could tell you I reached into the bag and pulled out a tip for Ashley but to be honest with you....I just didn't think of it. Not so much a Scrooge as a forgetful Inspector Columbo:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I'm not going.""Why not?" she asked."I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "One, they don't like me, and two, I don't like them."His mother replied, "I'll give YOU two good reasons why YOU SHOULD go to church. (1) You're 59 years old, and (2) you're the pastor!"

just use the inevitable snide comments from those anonymous commenters as therapy. and now you don't have to suffer through them twice, once when you do the approval and again when you look through them

Well, gee, Al, my patootie feels just great tonight. You are such a kick, luvya, Al. Although on a slooooooow connection I do often give up on word verification. Not the case tonight. That little cabin is really darling, and I love the photo of the dogs with the McD goodies.

It's the Word Verificaton that give me a pain! Blogger seems to do a fine job picking up the occasional spam and putting it in the spam folder. Then If I feel like it every so often I just review the two ro three in there and delete them.

I have a strong dislike for the Word Verification. But I like your blog enough to go thru it every time I comment.

Just now word verification showed up here again. That seems odd.Still not difficult to comment, it's just too bad I don't really have anything to say. You'll bump into Ashley once again I would imagine. She might appreciate the tip, but judging by her character, I doubt that that had anything to do with her motivation. Your kind words to her would probably be of more value. Just my two cents...

I love the cabin photo..what a great location to stay! Don't your fuzzy kids ever get the "runs" from eating bites of people food..? We had a St. Bernard (and that's another story) who got the drizzlins if he ate any people food...and let me just say..he sprayed our kitchen brown one evening..Could be he just had a touchy tummy, eh?

You made me laugh! I imagined seeing that thing come out of your pocket and the look on the cashier's face and it gave me a tremendous chuckle. Thanks. I like the ditty at the end too. I don't mind the word verification.

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.